A fast-paced plot keeps readers titillated, if not awed, in a novel that details a cunning nation-building strategy.
Part treasure hunt, part political thriller, part island comedy.
In clipped, staccato prose, Merry (The Golden Altar, 2003) tells the story of George MacGregor, a junior supervisor at a cable communications company in the Latin American nation of Maraguay–a role that affords him the pivotal opportunity to cut off contact with the outside world when his young military friends stage a coup to oust the country’s corrupt dictator. The British national becomes a key member of the new ruling junta, overseeing treaty renewals and dodging assassination attempts between lavish meals and outings with beautiful, loose women. The action-driven plot keeps readers from forming attachments to the characters and makes their motivations mysterious. Though the omission of George’s reasoning for following a power-hungry acquaintance to overthrow the government of a foreign country may be due to authorial oversight, the ambiguity also adds intrigue and is a reason to keep turning pages through a somewhat technical, militaristic description of the violent takeover. The revolutionary zeal that accompanies their victory proves contagious, and the moral uncertainty that prevails as readers begin to relate to the self-interested leaders is tantalizing. The junta rules according to a scheme–hold elections that give the impression of democracy without allowing time for a real opposition party to form–that is brilliant in its cynicism, but the resulting four decades of prosperity question whether openness and honest popular representation are the most effective ways to run a nation. Then, as the narrative risks becoming too serious, a clownish character, Felipe, regales the other top government men with his misogynistic antics as comic relief. The cheating-husband yarns complement the borderline oppressive masculine tone that is prevalent throughout the chronicle, where a tropical locale provides a formulaic setting for men to prove their might through bellicose valor and exotic seductions.
A fast-paced plot keeps readers titillated, if not awed, in a novel that details a cunning nation-building strategy.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4196-8702-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A new edition of the by now classic collection of affiliated stories which has already established its deserved longevity.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963
ISBN: 055338256X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963
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